News & Views
SPRING HAS SPRUNG!
So many swell things planted and growing!
New solo record is coming along - check out my IndieGoGo page for info & progress on how we're getting this beautiful dream out into the world!
Next NYC GIG Fri 4/21/23 at 8:30pm!
Alongside the awesome Elliot Roth as we continue our monthly hybrid swing residency at Pangea NYC - more deets below, more new music, more good show shoes, plus our talented pal Lavondo Thomas on bass!
Deep thanks to BistroAwards.com for this lovely write-up of our monthly hit - read the review here
and
Thank you BroadwayWorld.com too for the nomination as Best NYC Duo Show 2022! Honor to be recognized!
Most of all, thanks to everyone checking this out for all you do to experience & elevate independent music & art.
Oh, and I'm back to judge nationals for the American Pie Council in May, so stay tuned for pix & intrigues!
Some of this, some of that...
This site features info on my solo & producing mack-inations, and shout-outs on events with talented pals you should know about. For what's up with my vocal group Those Girls, visit ThoseGirlsSing.com. AND I'm super lucky to be making some jazz-based noise with the crazy talented Elliot Roth - check out his site theelliotroth.com & our gig info below.
Be Inspired By Everything
"There are no bad ideas - just good ideas that went horribly wrong." - A. Lincoln (or maybe Ghandi or Brendan Fraser,
and watch him in "Doom Patrol" - Academy Award Winner Brendan not Ghandi)
"Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” - D. Mamet
(that one's really true.)
1st 2 recording days wrapped!
We had great session days at Big Orange Sheep Studios, Brooklyn NY. Highly recommend and omg that piano. Basics done - this band killed. Now onto vocals & a few incredible guest players dropping in some solos.
More pix & maybe some bootleg audio to sneak you soon!
Big huge thanks to my dear crowdfunders & to Peter Eldridge (producer/arr/piano/birthday coordinator), Matt Aronoff (basses), Jesse Lewis (guitars), Jared Schonig (drums/perc), Elliot Roth (add'l piano/vox) and the best engineer MP Kuo!
Bio
So... what would you like to know?
Karen is a ten-time MAC Award winner for vocal performance and songwriting, as well as for her current vocal harmony work in NYC pop vocal group Those Girls (thosegirlssing.com), and for 12+ years prior with talented singer/songwriter Michael Holland as half of the pro vocal duo that brought the acclaimed & ridiculous retropop series “Gashole!” to the world. LGNY says “in addition to her sense of humor, she has the kind of voice one longs to hear…her flawless placement, appealing style and dead on performance are electrifying!” and The Village Voice echoed “Mack can sock anything with a rock beat out of the ballpark.” Karen was part of the 25th Anniversary Gala for the NY Pops at Carnegie Hall, Handel’s “Messiah Rocks - A Joyful Noise” at NJPAC.and was featured in the UK premier of “Brenda Bly, Teen Detective”, and “Build Me A Bridge - The Music of Miller and Hammonds” at the Bridewell Theater in London’s West End. Club appearances include Town Hall, Symphony Space, B.B. Kings, The Bottom Line, Caroline’s, The Fez, The Bitter End, and numerous college keggers. As a songwriter, she was acknowledged for her debut CD "Take That" (Miss Prim Records) in a cover story by Show Business Weekly on promising writers on the rise, in prestigious, well-established company that included Julie Gold (From A Distance), Amanda McBroom (The Rose), and John Bucchino (Grateful).
Always drawn to rich and complex vocal harmony, Karen was a performing member and co-managing partner of DOO-WA-ZOO, a five-part contemporary a cappella group with a pop/rock repertoire of original compositions and creative covers back before Pentatonix ruled the aca-earth. Featured on the nationally broadcast VH1 special "Takin' It to the Streets", the vocal band headlined at major venues on the east coast such as The Bottom Line, The Bitter End, The Ironhorse, New England Conservatory, Princeton University, Penn State University, and the 92nd St. Y, NYC. All members of the group were contributing writers and arrangers. Their independently produced EP "Onomatopoeia" is considered among the best in contemporary a cappella by TAXI Independent A&R (LA), as well as the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (CASA), and continues to enjoy national and international airplay.
Currently, she can been seen in tandem with New York Times hailed jazz pianist/vocalist Elliot Roth monthly at Pangea (NYC). And if you don't care so much about music, but are into quality baked goods, be sure to friend her on FB before October when her daily baking and posting for National Cookie Month begins (yes, that's a real thing... yes, she bakes a different cookie every single day... seriously. )
Press
"In addition to her sense of humor, she has the kind of voice one longs to hear... her flawless placement, appealing style and dead on performance are electrifying... she'll give you chills she's that good!"
C. Byrne, LGNY
"They are both seasoned pros... they offer a smart, sophisticated, intriguing collection of songs with Roth’s superb piano underscoring his and Mack’s smooth, supple, beautifully phrased vocals offering lucky diners and drinkers a superb evening of entertainment. Warm and witty, with nothing forced or trite... they are so in tune they seem sometimes to finish each other’s sentences and thoughts... intertwining solos, duets and a well-chosen medley or two. Their song list includes pop, originals (Mack has long been lauded as a fine songwriter), standards, and a healthy seasoning of bossa, which pleased me no end. If you are there for the first set, you are likely to stay for the second. I would have gladly stayed for a third and a fourth set by the marvelous Karen Mack and Elliot Roth." - Gerry Geddes, Bistroawards.com
"Both accomplished vocalists, Elliot and Karen show particular skill with their duets... the winsome twosome are the boy-girl act that everyone has been waiting for... and with their friendly, laid back connection to the crowd, to say nothing of Roth's inventive arrangements, it wouldn't surprise this reporter if their monthly residency will be upgraded to more than once a month!" - S. Mosher, BroadwayWorld.com
"I'll say it up front: Do not miss this show! Mack's voice has a precision and purity of tone that's nothing short of stunning... It's a satisfying breath of fresh musical air.”
John Michael Koroly - Whitney Radio/WVOX
"Like bolt lightning, she electrified the stage from opening to encore... she sounds like a combination of Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks - the perfect vocal instrument for jazz, rock, country, and all points in between. Can this gal sing!"
J. Hoglund - Backstage
"It's a sound you want to hear fronting a first-rate band, and that's just what she's got behind her... Mack can knock anything with a rock beat out of the ballpark... Besides being naturally funny, she's so generous she passed out song sheets that supply songwriters' names and their websites."
D. Finkle - The Village Voice
"A sterling instrument! She has unerring good taste in her musical choices and wisely lets the lyric speak for her in simple and understated interpretations.”
David Hurst, Show Business
”Mack's voice is a thing of beauty with a rich, lush, inviting tone that somehow works equally well belting rock standards or performing the most frivolous of the era's love ballads.” Mona Finston - Cab Hotline
Take That
$20.00
My first CD produced by the ever awesome Michael Holland back when I fancied myself an eclectic acoustic rock star (also avail. digitally at iTunes, but from me you get old school "hold it in your hand" and maybe a surprise or two.)
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